The Blessing of Frailty - Kimberly Dawn Rempel

In the empty church foyer on a weekday, a young woman helps a young man hobble to the reception desk.

His young frame is frail and moves slowly and awkwardly with the aid of a cane and the young woman’s supportive arm. She holds him with every step.

Slowly. Slowly, make their way across the lobby.

I can’t stop staring at the beauty of it.

It’s a beauty reveals itself in her patience. She does not hurry him, or even look around the room to gauge what others might think. She walks slowly and steadily beside him, adjusting her speed to his, adjusting herself to suit his needs. She gives.

The beauty is also in him. He moves steadily forward, completely dependent on the cane and his friend. He accepts this assistance, and moves forward. His frailty and need does not keep him at home, angry and alone. He has bravely humbled himself and accepted his limits. He does not pull away or try to resist or run ahead. He humbly accepts help.  

Both of them, I realized, had to humble themselves, each giving up their desires for something different, each accepting what is. This beauty belongs to God – their humility and acceptance and their journey together is a beautiful example of love, and I thank the Lord for the privilege of witnessing it that morning.

As they moved on and I was left with my own thoughts, I saw me and God in that arrangement. He patiently helps me in my frailty, not looking around the room or racing ahead. He stays with me, helping me in my weakness. When I refuse the help, or try to run ahead on my own, I get hurt and fall down. When I humble myself though, and accept my frailty, humbly resting on His strength, we move ahead together slowly, slowly, and steadily.

Thank you God, for loving us tenderly and faithfully.

And thank you, even for the frailty that reveals my need of you, and that teaches me to walk in your ways. Thank you for my need that draws me deeper into relationship with and dependence on you.

Kimberly Dawn Rempel helps authors market their books and expand their reach online through 1:1 coaching, editing, and book marketing.  Click here to Download her free guide, 14 Ways to Leverage Your Book  or join her Facebook Group, Marketing-Savvy Authorpreneurs HERE.

Casting off by Lynn J Simpson

 

May 4, 1995, under a clear spring sky, the Edmonton Queen Riverboat navigated the North Saskatchewan River waters for the first time as  hundreds of spectators lined the banks. 

I wonder if Ray Collins was among those hundreds?

See, according to the stories told, Mr. Collins since a young lad  had been fascinated by the stories of steam boats that once sailed the river of Edmonton.  Delivering lumber to the North West Mounted Police in Fort Saskatchewan, the steamwheelers operated from 1874 until  1915 when the big flood halted the operation. But that flood is another story. 

Mr. Collins first approached the project of building a steam boat back in 1964, but it wasn't until 1992 that his dream began to float when the mayor of Edmonton said yes to the 3.4 million venture. Scheduled to launch a year later, the boat was docked in money battles until finally Mr. Collins drifted into bankruptcy and Carrington Properties cruised in to save the Queen. 

Now, I don't know Mr. Collins and have no idea what his mind state may have been that day his dream sailed when he was no longer anchored to the project.

May he have considered himself a failure?

Or maybe, just maybe, Mr. Collins took on a mind state that he had done his due diligence in piloting a dream, a project that did voyage? Just most likely not sailed the direction expected, possibly due to hasty decisions along the way. 

Why the boat story when it comes to writing about our theme this month of apprenticeship? 

One word: tenacity.

Remember it was May 4th, 1995, twenty-nine years after his first launch attempt that the Edmonton Queen floated the North Saskatchewan River, and Mr. Collin's dream got under way. 

Twenty-nine years.

There are many, many stories of dreams started and finished, with a boat-load of time in between.

May we always be encouraged that time is our friend, and that diligence does pay-off.  And even though our dream may look different between launch and sailing, we've got our great Captain whose purpose prevails. 

Proverbs 21:5 The plans of the diligent lead only to plenty, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.

Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans of a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. 

You can find more tenacious musings by Lynn J Simpson on her Website

Preserving our Stories - Karen Toews

In less than three weeks my daughter, her husband and family are moving. Not across town or to the next one either, but back to Canada and to a location and lifestyle they anticipate to be simpler, allowing for less 'stuff'. Packing has been judiciously selective. But as my daughter related in her blog , a perk of the whole purging process has been "discovering treasures of your life's belongings". One of which for her, has been dusting off her Mom's memoir of short stories about pieces of our past.

The reminders of: the writing process (which took me forever); the pleasure of my daughter's appreciation; and the thrill of my grand-daughter declaring to her Mom, "there is just so much about you I don't know!" have been a direct prod.

It's time to do my own sorting - scrolling computer documents with opening paragraphs and sketchy outlines, skimming personal journals, thumbing through the "writing ideas" folder - and to once again start preserving. Without even looking I know those jotted notes include adventure, pain, love, loneliness, humour, thankfulness, uncertainties, challenges. Our narrative, with its joys and pathos, all buffered by our heritage and wrapped in relationship with our God.

Jotting ideas on paper scraps takes as little time and effort as the thoughts that inspired the action. Following through to the polished product, be it a short story or a manuscript, will be the test of my resolve and expression of my passion.

There's much work ahead. It won't get done unless I set time lines (as my best intentions are easily derailed without deadlines), schedule writing time, and begin to write. I'm ready for the challenge, the prompt is on my computer: stories left untold will be gifts I've neglected to give - to my family, to myself and to my God.